Week 5 Rankings + Notes

Oklahoma takes over the #1 ranking this week. That seemed unlikely heading in, but the Sooners managed to pour some 197.9 all over the NCAA as Chayse Capps suddenly became the most important all-arounder in your life, while Florida had a late-meet nasty and lost to Georgia. Georgia. With Georgia beam.

Our regal 10.000 of the week comes courtesy of Capps, because of course it does. Finally. You can see the video of her beam 10 on Aunt Flo, but it’s behind the iron subscription curtain. So otherwise, just imagine every other beam routine you’ve seen Chayse Capps do, and it’s that. Just a 10 this time. And with a walkover to scale.

In other big routine news, NastiaFan101 posted Sophina the diva’s floor routine and got it trending all over faceplace and the information superhighway. Hero’s work. It’s almost like social media is a tool that can be used to attract attention to the sport, or something. Teams should definitely continue not taking advantage of that at all and waiting for fans to do the work for them.

Love. Exciting. Beautiful. Fun and crowd-pleasing without being a joke. Though it will be interesting to see what it scores away from home given factors like whatever is happening after that switch ring. Or, knowing UCLA and the health situation and the Sophina being in the floor lineup situation, we’ll never see this routine ever again. RIP, Hallie Mossett’s feet.

This is why it has been frustrating to spend three seasons watching Sophina actively not making the floor lineup. Because she’s capable of this. Her performance elevates the lineup, and when we have DeJesus and Mossett going at the same time (ever?), it will start to feel like a classic, thrilling UCLA floor rotation of years ago. Even Cipra, whose routine is not my taste, moves quite well and performs with style. It’s encouraging to see that this year for a team that, especially in the couple seasons post-McCullough and EHH, had to keep the best dancers out of the lineup in favor of tumblers who could get the scores but didn’t really want to have to dance about it, when it was all Pritchett and Courtney and Zam. (Stop freaking out, I love the Zam, but she never really looked thrilled at the idea of doing these routines.)

-Florida gets a special squint this week for a significant beam and floor meltdown in Georgia. It happens. It’s not changing any expectations for Florida’s potential this postseason. Beam has been mostly solid up until now (it was the first beam fall for both Baker and Boren this year), so while it’s something to watch especially because Baker did go on that run of beam falls last season, it’s not a thing yet. They are clearly missing Boyce, but Sloan and Ernst should be able to carry the load with an occasional 9.900 from McMurtry.

Floor depth is the bigger concern. This week, Bridgey was sick and Sloan had a bad one, and the score immediately fell apart. There’s no competitive-scoring backup option, meaning there’s no room for an injury or for Bridgey to continue being out of form if Florida is going to fend off Oklahoma, LSU, and Alabama, all of whom will bring lineups with six legitimate 9.9s once April hits. It puts a lot of pressure on Baker and Sloan for 9.950s.

-Oklahoma is ranked first on bars. Bars was my biggest concern this year because of having to throw in people like Jackson and Capps who haven’t been good enough to make the lineup in the past, but…it’s working?

-LSU recorded a very encouraging 197.425, finally delivering (almost entirely) on bars and beam at the same meet. Fall potential still remains a worry on some of the most beautiful routines, like Finnegan’s everything and Macadaeg’s beam, but this score is particularly encouraging because LSU is capable of much better, particularly on vault which peaked at 9.875 this week.

It’s hilarious to me that Gnat performed the exact same DTY she has done for three weeks, but took a small step this time, resulting in a 9.875 instead of a 10. Because that small step was worth .150? Amazing how when someone doesn’t stick, other deductions lose their invisibility powers.

-The top six teams on vault all have at least two Yurchenko 1.5s in their vault lineups. The highest any team has scored so far this year for a lineup with one or zero 1.5s is Arkansas’s 49.275. Contrast that with the best lineups featuring 2+ 1.5s, which are still going into the 49.4s and up to 49.500. Giving up multiple tenths on vault is an unacceptable proposition in the postseason, a particularly troubling issue for Utah and UCLA, who will struggle to keep up without joining the cult of vault difficulty especially if the vaults continue looking like they did on Saturday.

-Alabama needs Lauren Beers. The Tide did not have to count a fall over the weekend, scoring largely as expected except for Beers having a no good, very bad day all over the place (and Aja Sims getting a 9.6 on beam because huh?), but that was enough to bring the team total down to 196.775 and cause Alabama to lose ground on all the major players except Florida.

-Auburn got a 196.825, which was definitely a TWU score but also a symbolic performance, returning from two significant injuries in the previous week to look just as competitive if not better than before. The depth was tested, and the depth came through.

-Is there any all-arounder getting held down in the scores more than Amanda Wellick? Here. Take this scrap of 9.825. Fetch.

-Oh yeah. Georgia’s beam. It’s still horrifying, with yet another week of counting fall. Will this victory over Florida help, or will beam remain a soul-crushing experience ad infinitum? Once again, it’s a must-watch rotation this weekend at home against LSU.

This season is all about the hands-free routine, and while it seems to be mostly working for Ernst, it didn’t work for Peng, and it’s not working for Babalis. Floor has turned out better as she’s starting to nail those round-off + double backs, but that beam routine just looks so uncomfortable and challenging for her. As it does for everyone on Georgia except Mary Beth Box, who shows her confidence in the speed and aggression of every movement. She needs to teach a class called “How to work beam without looking like you’re about to have diarrhea 101” and everyone needs to take it.

-Denver! A second-straight Nina McGee. I mean 196. Encouragingly, there were lots of 9.875s from supporting players this time around, which helps Denver’s prospects since it can’t all be about one person. Denver does get a few home 196s every season that don’t necessarily represent postseason potential, so the real test will come the next two weekends at road meets in which they will be directly compared to the likes of Oklahoma and Alabama. Those two meets will tell us where this team really is.

-Missouri broke the 196.5 barrier for the first time since the famous 2010 regionals performance.

-I haven’t talked about Lindsay Mable much so far this year, so…she continues being Lindsay Mable and continues keeping Minnesota competitive by herself. I’m worried about next season. Here’s her beam just because.

-George Washington took the torch back from New Hampshire this week with a 196.075 to New Hampshire’s 195.550. New Hampshire is absolutely killing it on beam but does not have competitive vaults, which makes it very difficult to get those 196s and puts a lot of pressure on bars and beam, while George Washington has the bigger vaults and higher scoring potential but gets very erratic scores for them. EAGLs will be good this year.

3 thoughts on “Week 5 Rankings + Notes”

After watching umpteen meets over the last two weeks, my biggest judging gripe has to be the gifting of connections for dance-acro and flight series on beam. So many gymnasts are being credited for very sketchy 'connections' when the judges should be trying to differentiate between a front aerial (pause) BHS and a triple series. Take the 0.2 already – it's driving me bonkers!